Nick Hall, Veterans Affairs Travel Fraud, Washington 2023

Two former employees of Seattle’s Veterans Affairs Hospital have been sentenced to prison terms for their involvement in a travel fraud scheme, announced U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan.

Nick Hall, 47, of Seattle, was sentenced to 42 months in prison and three years of supervised release, while Keishjuan Daniels, 33, of Kent, Washington, was sentenced to 37 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Both defendants were ordered to share in restitution in the amount of $181,114.

The scheme, which began in the second half of 2010, involved Hall and Daniels recruiting other veterans to lie about where they lived so that they could fraudulently inflate their travel costs for coming to the VA for medical appointments. They provided their co-schemers with phony addresses in towns such as Pullman, Port Townsend, Richland, or Port Angeles, Washington, so that the amount of mileage each vet claimed was far in excess of what they actually traveled.

Hall and Daniels worked in the travel voucher office and provided the falsified vouchers and sometimes provided vouchers for appointments that never occurred. They would take a kickback of half the cash the veteran obtained through fraud, netting them over $90,000 each over the course of the 18-month scheme.

According to records filed in the case, the two men recruited eight veterans who were vulnerable due to service-related mental health disorders. The scheme totaled $180,000 in false claims, with the average monthly cost of larger travel vouchers cut almost in half after the arrests.

“Not only did these defendants recruit vulnerable veterans into criminal activity, they stole resources critically needed to help our men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan,” said U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan. “Following the arrests in this case, the average monthly cost of larger travel vouchers was cut almost in half, and sent a deterrent message everywhere: Don’t cheat our wounded warriors.”

Medical benefits are a critical aid for veterans, and the VA will reimburse certain travel costs to ensure more veterans get the services they need. The VA Office of Inspector General will continue to aggressively pursue investigations of this type and hold those responsible accountable for their actions.

The case is a reminder of the importance of protecting the public trust and ensuring that those who abuse the system are held accountable. The VA Office of Inspector General has conducted 225 investigations and arrested 125 people for fraud in the travel benefits program nationwide over the last 18 months.

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